Fisher & Paykel Wrinkles!

beckylcMarch 15, 2011

I have a 6 year old F&P Intuitive eco IWL12 washer and Smartload DEGX1 dryer. I am generally happy with them, except that I cannot figure out HOW to get my husband's permanent-press shirts to come through without having to completely iron every one of them. With my 20-year-old Kenmore set I occasionally had to do a bit of touch-up, but nothing like this. I have tried the "creasables" setting on the washer, I have tried making a "favorites" setting that uses a traditional wash, I always set the dryer on "permanent press," - no matter what, they're terribly wrinkled. I just washed two new shirts and they came through with the creases almost exactly like they were when I took them out of the package, which leads me to think it's the washer more than the dryer. Has anyone found settings that actually work? Thank you--

The Creasables option increases the auto-set water level one "notch" higher than would otherwise be used so the load has more room to float (no effect if a level is selected manually), adds a cooldown rinse before the first spin, and reduces the final spin to 300 RPM/low. There's a secondary option to raise the Creasables final spin to 670 RPM/medium, you might check if that has perhaps been done, and reduce it back to 300/low to see if that helps.

The cooldown rinse doesn't really do anything significant unless you're using Warm, Warm/Hot, or Hot wash. Even Warm (coupled with EcoActive) isn't all that warm unless Traditional Wash is selected.

Warmer wash temp helps relax fabric so it sheds wrinkles. Perm Press cycles back in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s washed in Warm or even Hot water, then the pre-spin cooldown acted to prevent spinning while hot (which would possibly set wrinkles back into the fabric). Of course, wash temp depends on what the fabric can take, so as to avoid damage/shrinking.

Intuitive should do a deep-fill agitated rinse by default unless you've programmed one of the Water Saver options. If so, change it back to an agitated rinse, see if that helps.

Permanent Press on the dryer runs at Medium temp (approx 140F) ... and includes the Wrinkle Free option, which you can select yourself on any cycle. Perhaps try drying on Delicate (127F) instead. A lower temp can help reduce wrinkles by allowing more tumbling/flexing time and slower evaporation of moisture. Wrinkle Free of course doesn't do anything to the drying process itself, it only comes into play at end of the cycle if the clothes aren't immediately removed. I've found that purposely leaving a load to run for a couple hrs on the extended Wrinkle Free tumble can make for smoother/softer results.

Thank you so much for all the tips. I didn't know I could go lower than 670 RPM spin, but I found it and changed that. I set the water level an additional notch higher on the creasables cycle. I tried using warmer water to wash with - the machine wouldn't let me use warm/hot on the creasables cycle - got a message that it would damage the fabrics - so I ran the faucet in the laundry room till it was hot to make sure the warm water would start out warm. Also tried drying on delicate. I've run the new shirts through twice trying different changes and the out-of-the-package wrinkles are there as much as ever, but I'll continue playing around with different changes. I appreciate all tips - more information than I found in the instruction books. I think the shirts just don't move around enough in the washer to get the wrinkles out. Even the traditional wash just swishes them around gently, whereas my old washer moved them around a lot more.

You don't need to manually increase the water level on Creasables, the machine does that automatically (if using the Auto water level function) ... it'll auto-sense the water level per what would be used for the load if Creasables wasn't selected, then fill one level higher (although not more than the High level of course). However, if you do manually select a water level with Creasables, it won't fill higher than that level.

Higher water levels result in slower agitation due to the machine sensing less resistance of clothes on the agitator during the fabric-sensing process. As you are probably aware, there's normally no direct way to select agitation speed on Intuitive Eco, the machine adjusts itself to the load. Woolens, Handwash, and some of the Lifecycles run at specific agitation profiles (varied a little per the water level). There is a also a Max Wash selection on the Lifecycles Extra menu that forces maximum agitation speed.

If you want Warm/Hot or Hot water for a Creasables load...
- Select Warm/Hot or Hot water temp
- Select Traditional Wash
- Select a water level manually
- DO NOT select Creasables
- Start the cycle
- When fill is finished and agitation starts, turn off the Power ... then back on, select the same options but this time WITH Creasables, and Start. The machine won't fill again or run the EcoActive wash period since it's already at the selected level. It'll do the fabric sensing process and continue on with the wash/rinse/spin.

I upped the water level +1 in the Adjust Settings Menu, but now that you said that will make for slower agitation I just moved it back to Auto. I'll play with the water temperature more to see if that makes a difference. Am I the only one who has noticed more wrinkling with these machines or have you heard this before? You know way more about these machines than what is written in the instruction booklets. Thank you so much for your advice.

I upped the water level +1 in the Adjust Settings Menu, ...You mean back to 0, not Auto. :-) That is a sensitivity adjustment for the automatic water level function ... it doesn't necessarily/assuredly raise (or lower) the actual target level on every load, depends on how individual loads fall on the scale of the sensing algorithm. As I'm sure you're aware, there is another menu to select Auto-sensing or one of the five manual water levels on a per-load basis.

I can't speak for others' experiences, but I've not had any disparity in wrinkling compared to other washers & dryers that I've used in the past.